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3:33 Sports Short #32 // Sex Tape by Michael Chin

Submitted by Prairie Schooner on Thu, 06/23/2016 - 11:36

After yesterday's piece on the noble sport of dodgeball we decided to follow it up with a duo of posts on another modern sport that artfully blends aggression and performance, professional wrestling. Below is Michael Chin's poetic recollection of his childhood memories of Hulk Hogan in light of the Hulkster's recent sex tape controversey. Click here for Francisco Delgado's meditation the experience of being a fan of The Rock before white kids started wearing his T-shirts.

I heard there was a Hulk Hogan sex tape. That he sleeps with his friend’s wife, and it may or may not have been his friend filming.

I heard Hulk knew he was on tape.

I heard that he didn’t.

I heard he was angry.

And I remember an awakening. A boy, watching Andre the Giant squeeze Hulk’s body in a bear hug, all of the sweat on sweat and skin on skin and groans and screams.

I haven’t sought out footage from the sex tape. I don’t want to see it. And yet, it harkens back. Discovery. Curiosity. Shame. Hulk in red knee pads and yellow spandex. Bright as the sun. Too bright look at straight on.

Michael Chin was born and raised in Utica, New York and is currently an MFA candidate in creative writing at Oregon State University. He won the 2014 Jim Knudsen Editor’s Prize for fiction from the University of New Orleans and has previously published fiction and poetry in over twenty journals including Bayou Magazine, The Rappahannock Review, and The Pacific Review. Follow him on Twitter @miketchin.